Harbour Publishing owners buy Douglas & McIntyre

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The owners of B.C.-based Harbour Publishing, Howard and Mary White, have purchased Douglas & McIntyre, the flagship imprint of D&M Publishing, which filed for creditor protection in late October.

White said he is “thrilled” with the deal, and that he has admired D&M since starting Harbour Publishing in 1974. “I’ve always admired the quality of the list they maintained with their great variety of books,” White said.

All books contracted or published under the Douglas & McIntyre imprint are included in the sale.

D&M applied recently to extend to April 4 a deadline to file a proposal to creditors, to allow more time to negotiate a sale. The sale to Harbour Publishing, which is based on the Sunshine Coast, still needs to be approved by the court, White said, adding Douglas & McIntyre will operate as a separate company.

D&M — which published Douglas & McIntyre and Greystone books and owned New Society Publishing — filed for creditor protection in October with outstanding debts of more than $6 million owed to 143 creditors.

The company also announced recently it had sold the Greystone imprint to B.C.-based Heritage House Publishing, which will create a separate company called Greystone Books Ltd., to include all books contracted or published under the Greystone imprint since its founding in 1993.

“The successful conclusion of first the Greystone and now the Douglas & McIntyre asset sales confirms the quality imprints of D&M are on a solid new path for the future,” said Scott McIntyre, who co-founded the publishing house in 1970. “In perilous times for independent publishers everywhere, this is very good news for our writers, for their books, for the legacy of D&M’s 40-year publishing record, and for Canada.”

Douglas & McIntyre has published 500 books, including authors such as Douglas Coupland, Wade Davis, Fred Herzog and many other authors. Harbour is known for regional titles and recently published Trucking in British Columbia, by Daniel Francis, and Juan de Fuca’s Strait by Barry Gough.

Canadian distribution for the Douglas & McIntyre program will continue to be handled by D&M’s current distributor, HarperCollins Canada, D&M said in a news release.

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